https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ Theses Digitisation: https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/research/enlighten/theses/digitisation/ This is a digitised version of the original print thesis. Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten: Theses https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] YOUR PLACE OR MINE? Issues of Power, Participation and Partnership in an Urban Regeneration Area Frontispiece: Making connections - The Yoker Ferry arriving at Renfrew. John Gerard Crotty MA MPhil MRTPI (Rtd) Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD Department of Geography and Geomatics University of Glasgow March 2004 © John Crotty 2004 1 ProQuest Number: 10753958 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10753958 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 (GLASGOW UNIVERSITY .LIBRARY: Abstract ABSTRACT This study sets out to explore what is characterised as the partnership process in an urban regeneration area. Rather than examine formal processes or policy, the intention was to explore the interaction between the active residents in the study area and the agents of some of the organizations with whom they came into contact. The area (Yoker) is at the western periphery of the city, but is neither a ‘peripheral estate’ nor until recently an area of formal policy intervention. It is typical of similar small areas in its industrial history and its difficulty in adjusting to changed economic circumstances. Its response has, however, been vigorous and based significantly on its own endogenous resources. In understanding the processes involved, the study has taken two broad approaches: the theoretical and the empirical, and is an attempt to relate the two as they can be seen to ‘interact’ on the ground. The theoretical approach has three strands (1) to understand the local working of power, (2) to examine the notions of social capital and collaboration and (3) to understand the local partnership process. Power, explored in terms of capacity and legitimacy and developed through consideration of ‘circuits of power and ‘hidden discourses’, is seen not as a discrete entity but as providing the base on which social capital and partnership working might be constructed and as a signifier of other social and economic relationships. Social capital is seen as grounded in local power relations and as providing a matrix within which local networks might be activated, and trust developed; the cognate notion of collaborative planning is seen as a mechanism for bringing ‘government’ and ‘community’ into a process of active cooperation. Finally, partnership working is seen as the ideal outcome of the interaction between local power and social capital, dependant not on formal processes or discourses but on the harnessing of local skills founded on capacity and need. The three Yoker case-studies are intended broadly to illustrate (rather than ‘prove’) some of these theoretical concerns in the field, but principally to allow local voices to articulate their perceptions of the issues within a semi-structured series of interviews. A brief comparative study in Drumchapel is intended to explore some of the differences between an area with a long history of policy intervention and an area like Yoker with no such history. The study concludes that a structured partnership approach will succeed best if founded firmly on local strengths and perceptions. 2 Table of Contents Table of Contents Page Abstract 2 Contents 3 List of Figures, etc. 6 Acknowledgements 8 Declaration 10 Chapter 1 - Introduction 11 Introduction - Background 11 The Study Area - The historical perspective 14 The Study Area - The statistical perspective 19 The Study Area - The policy perspective 33 The Structure of the thesis 41 Chapter 2 - Power 45 Introduction 45 The Origins of Power: Simple capacity 47 The Origins of Power: Legitimate capacity 50 Agency/Structure and the issue of scale 53 Circuits of power 57 Foucault’s theory of power 61 The entanglements of power 67 Interim summary and conclusions 68 Chapter 3 - Social Capital and Collaboration 70 Introduction 70 Community empowerment and the plus-sum view of power 71 Social capital and the salience of trust 73 Trust and trustworthiness 79 Social capital: Some counter-views 83 Collaborative planning 87 Interim summary and conclusions 93 3 Table of Contents Page Chapter 4 - The Partnership Process 95 Introduction 95 Partnership: A critical view 97 The background to the growth of partnerships 101 The discourse of partnership 103 Illustration: Progress in Partnership 105 The process of partnership 110 The conditions for partnership 114 Interim summary and conclusions 116 Chapter 5 - Methodology 119 Introduction 119 The nature of the study 122 Qualitative and quantitative methods 123 General methodological outline 124 The layout of the thesis 125 Archival search 126 The case-studies 128 Participant observation and the longitudinal approach 137 Interim summary and conclusions 140 Chapter 6 - The Youth Library Project 144 Introduction 144 The Project - The interviews 149 The project’s establishment - The positive use of power 150 The project’s operation - The empowerment phase 152 The project’s termination - The legacy of disempowerment 153 An alternative perspective - The views of the users 158 Interim summary and conclusions 162 Chapter 7 - The Advocacy (Incinerator) Project 166 Introduction 166 The Respondents 168 The minute record 169 The Interviews 171 Interim summary and conclusions 183 4 Table of Contents Page Chapter 8 - The Old School Project 186 Introduction 186 Particular methodology 187 The Project 188 The Building: Status and some pre-history 189 The Respondents 192 The Interviews 193 Interim summary and conclusions 202 Coda - Developments to date 204 Chapter 9 - The Drumchapel Study 206 Introduction 206 Drumchapel - The area profile 208 The Bid Submission 210 The Interviews: The ‘insider’ view 218 The Interviews: The ‘outsider’ view 225 Drumchapel and Yoker -Concluding remarks 230 Chapter 10 - Summary and Conclusions 232 Introduction 233 General summary - Introductory perspectives 233 The role of theory in the study 235 The case-studies 236 The Conclusions 237 (i) The Base: Power 238 (ii) The Matrix: Social capital and trust 243 (iii) The Product: Partnership 248 A consideration of outcomes - Theoretical and practical 250 Concluding remarks 252 General Bibliography 255 1. Published works 255 2. Chapters or sections in published works 258 3. Journal articles 260 4. Governmental and quasi-govemmental publications 262 5. Unpublished material 263 Appendices 264 Appendix A: The Youth Library Project interview 264 Appendix B: The Advocacy (Incinerator) Project interview 267 Appendix C: The Old School Project interview 270 5 List of Figures, etc. LIST OF FIGURES, ETC. (a) List of figures and frames Figure 1.1: Aspects of decentralisation 41 Figure 2.1: An illustration of the impact of global economic power 66 Frame 2.1: Dominating power and resisting power 68 Frame 3.1: Dilemmas of collective action 74 Figure 4.1: A ‘virtuous circle’ of empowerment 114 Frame 9.1: Drumchapel - The Opportunities 210 Figure 9.1: Drumchapel SIP organisational structure 217 (b) List of maps Map 1.1: General location plan - Glasgow 14 Map 1.2: Yoker in c. 1900 16 Map 1.3: Dumbarton Road Corridor SIP 32 Map 9.1: General map of Drumchapel SIP area 208 (c) List of Plates Frontispiece: Making connections Yoker Ferry arriving at Renfrew [S Gates] 1 Plate 1.1: Typical tenement street-scene of the 1950s [Mitchell Archive] 11 Plate 1.2: Aerial photograph of Whiteinch[The Herald] 15 Plate 1.3: Idealised view of Yoker in c. 1900 [Both Sides o f the Burn ] 18 Plate 1.4: Dumbarton Road Corridor [DRC SIP] 19 Plate 2.1: The old Yoker Power Station [Mitchell Archive] 45 Plate 3.1: The Open Gate at Drumchapel [Author] 70 Plate 4.1: Practical partnership [Author] 95 Plate 4.2: Ian Lang [Progress in Partnership] 106 Plate 5.1: Layers of history: The old distillery at Yoker [Both Sides o f the Burn ] 119 Plate 6.1: Yoker old school and schoolhouse [Mitchell Archive] 144 Plate 7.1: The Clyde in the 1950s [Mitchell Archive] 166 Plate 8.1: Yoker Old school (1876) in the 1960s [Mitchell Archive] 186 Plate 9.1: Drumchapel from the northwest (Kingsridge) [Author] 206 Plate 10.1: Aerial view of Yoker riverside in the 1950s [Mitchell Archive] 232 (d) List of tables Table 1.1: Representation on Yoker Resource Group 19 Table 1.2: DRC SIP Area - Age distribution of population 20 Table 1.2: House type 22 Table 1.4: Household type 23 Table 1.5: Housing tenure 23 Table 1.6: Claimant unemployment 24 Table 1.7: Benefits receipt 25 6 List of Figures, etc. Table 1.8: Educational statistics (selected) - Standard Grade levels (%) 28 Table 1.9: Comparative deprivation statistics (rankings) 31 Table 1.10: The urban discourse through time 35 Table 1.11: Policy definition and implementation in the UK 1968 - present 37 Table 2.1: Scale and focus 56 Table 9.1: Service providers 215 Table 9.2: SIP board representation 216 7 Acknowledgements ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I began this study as a mature - but naive - student.